SANTA FE, N.M. - New Mexico's big game hunters overwhelmingly want the state to adopt a preference point system for its special hunts drawings and they think the state's elk herds should either be allowed to increase or be kept at the levels they are now.

Those are among the findings of a Department of Game and Fish telephone survey conducted in April by Responsive Management, a Game and Fish contractor. Some 1,028 active big game hunters were called and the hunters were asked 77 questions. The survey was conducted in lieu of public meetings the Department had scheduled in the past. Attendance was poor at the meetings.

Additionally, the survey was available from the Game and Fish web site and more than 500 individuals took advantage of the opportunity to voice their ideas about big game hunting in New Mexico over the web. More than 100 hunters completed paper copies of the survey questions that were available at Department offices.

These comments will be considered by Game and Fish biologists as they prepare the regulations for the 2001-2002 big game hunting seasons. The public will have additional opportunities to comment on the proposed regulations at the June 29-30 meeting of the State Game Commission in Santa Fe, as well as at the Aug. 18-19 meeting in Farmington.

"Overall, the rating for the Department was higher than I expected," said Darrel Weybright, big game program coordinator. "Typically, the folks we hear from are bringing problems to our attention, so this was a nice surprise."

A preference-point system for the state's annual drawing for special hunts licenses was preferred by 63 percent of the hunters interviewed. Those include public-land elk and antelope licenses, bighorn sheep, oryx, ibex, javelina and deer entry permits. A bonus point would be awarded to a hunter every time he or she applied for but did not receive a license. Each bonus point would give the applicant an additional opportunity to draw a license in a subsequent drawing. Hunters lose their bonus points when they draw a license.

Forty percent of the hunters interviewed gave the Department's deer management a rating of "good," but 60 percent of hunters reported seeing fewer deer than 10 years ago. Increased numbers of hunters and predators were blamed for the decline.

The state's current system of managing elk on public lands, which limits numbers of licenses available for each game management unit and hunt period, was supported by 72 percent of the hunters surveyed. However, hunters split equally, 44 percent each, between those who would prefer more elk licenses and accept smaller bulls and those who want fewer elk licenses and larger bulls.

"One interesting thing we saw was that the more people knew about our management the higher our rating," Weybright said.

As for the size of the state's elk herds, 52 percent of the hunters said they should be kept the same as they are now and 29 percent said they should be increased. Hunters supported allowing private-land elk licenses to be sold over-the-counter, 60 percent, but 73 percent were not aware that private-land elk hunting had been liberalized to give hunters a five-day season any time within a 90-day window. Survey participants were split on the new private land elk hunting approach, 48 percent preferring the old system and 31 supporting the new.

The sampling error for this data overall is plus or minus three percent at the 95 percent confidence interval. Results obtained from the web site and the paper survey are being evaluated.